• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

And Then There Were Four

ByVernon McKenzie

Nov 17, 2011

NEW YORK—From the illustrious field of 68 teams that began play in the middle of March, now comes the Final Four still standing strong. But a funny thing happened along tournament way, two of the likely teams that are in the Final Four to be played this upcoming weekend in Houston, Texas weren’t in a lot of people’s brackets. Those teams are the Bulldogs of Butler University in Indiana and the Rams of Virginia Commonwealth University better known as VCU.

Case in point, ESPN has an online tournament bracket game for fans to fill out and out of 6 million entries, only 2 people got all Final Four teams correct. And although Butler had a magical run to not only the Final Four last year but made it all the way to the Championship game, not too many people saw them as a viable contender to repeat after losing All American Gordon Heyward to the NBA. Butler lost by 2 points to Duke University.

This tournament unlike anything else (sports related) is as unpredictable as the weather in certain regions. But the fickleness of March Madness is what makes it so great and so intriguing. Again this is a tournament that attracts even chubby cheek, wool knitting sweater, cookie baking grandmothers as well as red tie wearing executives in corporate America. Even jocks and ex jocks of rival sports partake in the craziness of March Madness. Like the Super Bowl, the NCAA tournament captivates the country.

The President of the United States, Barack Obama who is an avid sports fan (he dabbles in a little basketball himself when time permits) even participates in both the men’s and women’s tournament brackets. And to the surprise of many, President Obama doesn’t do too badly in his selections. If only running the country were this easy.

Jerald L. Hoover

You can follow Jerald on Twitter at: JerryHoover

By Vernon McKenzie

Graduate of New Institute Of Technology with a BA in Communications with a focus on Television Radio. Owner and Executive Producer of PureSportsNY

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